Topic 3: Animal form and function Flashcards
What does the biological anatomy of animals vary greatly across?
Taxa and even related clades.
What can be inferred by knowing the anatomy of an animal?
Its physiology.
What are the fundamental challenges all animals face? what allows animals to overcome these challenges?
- Need to obtain oxygen and nutrients
- Escape danger/predators and disease
- Need to produce offspring
Adaptations allow them to overcome these challenges.
What does natural selection favor in a population?
Variation that increases relative fitness.
Are form and function in animals related? give an example
yes animal form and function are correlated. ex: size of digestive tract: shorter for higher protein diets like carnivores.
What animal shape is typical for fast-swimming animals? Is this divergent or convergent evolution?
Fusiform (tapered at both ends), streamline shape is better for swimming fast. Convergent evolution: this body shape was selected for in all fast swimming animals despite having different ancestors.
Water is denser than air, how do aquatic animals reduce drag?
By having a streamlined body shape with no lumps.
What does the rate and amount of material exchange between animals and their environment typically dependent on?
Rate depends on surface area and amount of exchange depends on cell volume.
What enables direct exchange between cells and the environment in simple organisms?
Simple internal organization.
What type of tissue covers the outside of the body and lines organs?
Epithelial tissue.
What are the 5 different types of epithelial tissue?
- Cuboidal epithelium
- Simple columnar epithelium
- Simple squamous epithelium
- Pseudostratified columnar epithelium
- Stratified squamous epithelium
Cuboidal epithelium shape and function
dice (cube) shaped cells for secretion, prominent in many glands
simple columnar epithelium shape and function
brick-shaped cells for secretion and absorption
(in small intestine, secrete enzymes for breakdown), simple= all same height, columnar like columns tall.
simple squamous epithelium shape and function
plate-like (flat) cells for exchange via diffusion
(in lungs), think squamous=squashed flat shape.
pseudostratified columnar epithelium shape and function
cells of varying height (think stratified)
varying height, think stratified height as in name pseudostratified, but columnar like columns they’re tall.
stratified squamous epithelium shape and function
multi-layered and regenerates quickly, found on surfaces that experience high abrasion.
think stratified = various sizes but squamous =squashed flat shape.
What is connective tissue characterized by?
Sparse population of cells scattered through an extracellular matrix, that hold tissues and organs in place. Matrix consists of a web of fibres embedded in jelly-like liquid.
what do fibroblasts and macrophages do in connective tissues?
fibroblasts secrete the proteins, and macrophages engulf foreign particles.
to associate fibroblasts with protein think fibro is like fibre like actin protein is fibre
What are the three kinds of connective fibres? what do they do?
- Collagenous fibres: provide strength and flexibility
- Elastic fibres: make tissues elastic
- Reticular fibres: join connective tissues to adjacent tissues
what are the 6 types of connective tissues
loose connective, fibrous connective (dense found in tendons and ligaments), bone, adipose tissue (stores fat, insulates body), blood, cartilage (collagenous fibres).
What type of muscle tissue is responsible for voluntary movement? what type of muscle tissue is responsible for involuntary?
Skeletal muscle is for voluntary, smooth muscle is for involuntary.
What type of muscle is found in the walls of internal organs?
Smooth muscle.
what characterizes the different types of muscle tissues: skeletal, smooth and cardiac
skeletal is striated, smooth muscle lacks striations, and cardiac muscle is striated with intercalated disks.
What is the function of nervous tissue?
Receiving, processing, and transmitting information.
what do neurons and glial cells in nervous tissue do?
neurons transmit nerve impulses, and glial cells support the neurons
how do hormones work
Hormones are released from endocrine cells into the blood. Target specific cells depending on the hormone.
What are the two ways animals maintain their internal environment?
- Regulating: uses internal mechanisms to control internal changes in the face of external fluctuations
- Conforming: their internal conditions within the body change in accordance with external changes.
What does homeostasis refer to?
Maintenance of internal balance.
What is negative feedback in homeostasis? an example?
A mechanism that returns a variable back to its set point. ex: when you exercise you get hot, you’re nervous detects heat and triggers sweating to cool down your body.
do positive feedback loops play a major role in homeostasis?
no positive feedback is more of a process completing mechanism it’s not returning something back down to set point. (like child birth more and more contractions)
What is thermoregulation?
The process by which animals maintain internal temperatures within a tolerable range.
What is the difference between endothermy and ectothermy?
- Endothermy: internal metabolic processes provide heat
- Ectothermy: body temperature is maintained by external factors
describe poikilotherms and example
Have body temperatures that vary with environmental conditions. (ex: frogs, their blood freezes in the winter but fluid in the summer)
What are the four methods of heat transfer?
- Radiation
- Evaporation
- Convection
- Conduction
how do animals reduce or promote (balance) heat exchange in certain directions
integumentary system (hair, skin, nails). insulation: raise hair and feathers. blubber.
Circulatory systems: vasodilation to push blood to the skin to release heat when hot. vasoconstriction reduced blood flow to conserve heat when cold.
What is osmoregulation?
Regulation and balance of water and solute concentrations in cells.
what is the osmolarity of mammal blood and sea water
mammal blood is 300 mOsm/L, seawater is 1000.
What is the difference between osmoconformers and osmoregulators?
- Osmoconformers: internal osmolarity is the same as the environment
- Osmoregulators: internal osmolarity is different from environmental osmolarity
What is your circadian rhythm
regulated by physiological changes (melatonin and body temp) that occur every 24 hours.
biological clocks
coordinated to external factors like periods of light and dark ex: get tired earlier when its dark out. Can be reset but takes time, like jet lag.
What is acclimation?
Remodeling of response due to a single environmental factor.
What is acclimatization?
Remodeling of response due to complex environmental changes.
climate-ization getting used to a whole new CLIMATE
What happens to the body temperature during a fever?
The set point for the biological thermostat increases.
what type of solution do marine animals live in
hyperosmotic (ocean has more salt than their bodies)
do marine animals lose or gain water, and how
they constantly lose water from their gills and excretion (because solute concentration is higher outside their body).
Their bodies are hypoosmotic to the ocean.
What type of solution do freshwater animals live in?
Hypoosmotic solution
Freshwater has low solute concentrations.
do freshwater animals lose or gain water how
They constantly gain water through their gills and skin.
Their bodies are hyperosmotic to the freshwater.
How do freshwater animals solve the problem of constantly taking in water?
By drinking almost no water and having lots of excretion.
What are diadromous fishes?
Fishes like eels and salmon that move between freshwater and seawater and rearrange their osmoregulatory mechanisms via smoltification.
They can rearrange their osmoregulatory mechanisms via smoltification.
What is anhydrobiosis?
A dormant state that some invertebrate species enter when habitats dry up.
It often involves the use of sugars such as trehalose. An=no, hydro= water, bio=life. so means they’re living the no water life.
List some adaptations animals have to prevent water loss.
- Waxy cuticles and coverings
- Keratinised skin
- Exoskeletons
- Being nocturnal
- Drinking lots of water and eating moist foods
- Producing water via cellular respiration
What percentage of the resting metabolic rate can osmoregulation cost?
5-30%
This indicates the energetically expensive nature of osmoregulation.
What is the role of transport epithelia in osmoregulation? example?
They help move specific solutes in controlled amounts throughout the body. ex: concentrated salt fluid on seabird beaks.
